At noon on September 27, in the first round of the men's singles of the 2024 China Open Open, Shang Juncheng, who had just won the ATP Chengdu Open, lost to teammate Buyun Chaoket in three sets, regretting a round of play. In this game, Shang Juncheng had no obvious shortcomings in serving, holding and running, but Buyun Chaoket showed a stronger will to win than when he played against Zhang Zhizhen before, and finally won the reversal. The youth race of Chinese men's tennis is ongoing, and the healthy competition will continue.
In the past week, the Chinese men's tennis team has made a fantastic start to the 2024 China season. Buyun Chaoket and Zhang Zhizhen reached the semifinals of the Hangzhou Open, and Zhang Zhizhen won the Chinese derby and lost to Cilic to win the runner-up. Shang Juncheng swept Masetti at the ATP Chengdu to become the youngest professional tennis tournament champion. The Chinese men's tennis team has three players ranked in the top 100 in the world at once, which is gratifying.
On the night of winning the championship in Chengdu, Shang Juncheng and his team flew to Beijing. Shang Juncheng's tennis initiation was at the China Open, and he wanted to put on a satisfactory performance at home in Beijing. Last year, Shang Juncheng lost to Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka in three sets at the China Open. Since then, Shang Juncheng has learned from the pain, improved his diet and revised his targeted physical training plan. Shang Juncheng was still ranked 160th in the world when he hit the China Open last year, and now he is about to open the top 50 in the world rankings.
In contrast, Buyun Chaoket is more low-key, and before this year's China Open, Xiao Bu said that he was silently burying his ideals in his heart. After breaking the world ranking of 100 in Hangzhou, Xiaobu also took off a big burden. "There's no pressure, there's no baggage, you can really enjoy tennis, you don't have to think about the target ranking or anything." "You don't have to prove yourself anymore," he said. Even if the ranking drops back, I'm confident I'll come back. ”
For this Chinese derby, both are very serious. After all, although the two don't play each other much, they know each other very well, and whichever side is more relaxed will have a better chance of winning. Shang Juncheng forced the serve to win the first set and suddenly fell in form after winning the set, and was broken by the opponent. But the more experienced Shang Juncheng stubbornly suppressed Xiaobu's momentum and brought the game into a tie-break. Xiaobu once again had the problem of unstable performance in the previous Hangzhou game, and lost points in a row. Shang Juncheng's state continued to improve, winning the tie-break 7-3 to win the first set.
However, Shang Juncheng's form declined after taking the lead, and there was a problem with his serve in the second set, and he was broken by Xiaobu first. Shang Juncheng's form plummeted after that, and his consecutive mistakes caused his opponent to break serve many times, and Xiaobu equalized the set 6-2. After that, Shang Juncheng's mentality was a little unbalanced, and after being broken again, he once slammed his calf with a racket to vent his emotions. This is also a rare time for Shang Juncheng to be unable to control negative emotions in the game.
In the desperate situation of being broken twice and falling behind 0-3, Shang Juncheng hit a backhand volley into the dead corner to help him get a key break. However, Shang Juncheng's recovery momentum did not last long, and Buyun Chaoket improved his soft serve in the key game, and won the deciding set 6-4 to achieve a reversal.
From losing to Zhang Zhizhen in the Hangzhou China Derby to beating Shang Juncheng at the China Open, Xiaobu's growth and progress this week are obvious to all. In contrast, Shang Juncheng was a little tired from last week's game, but the bigger reason for the defeat came from his mentality. After all, Shang Juncheng has said more than once that the arena he values most is the China Open. Helplessly, the more important the victory is, the more difficult it is to get, and Shang Juncheng can only accept the result of a round of tours in the China Open for two consecutive years. Next, 22-year-old Buyun Chaoket and 19-year-old Shang Juncheng and other cutting-edge cadres will continue to blow down the youth storm of Chinese men's tennis.
Text/Beiqing Sports Chu Peng